CPU/Mobo Random CPU usage spiked while using non-intensive applications

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I am using an ASUS K52F notebook, which has an Intel Pentium P6200 processor, 3GB of RAM, and Intel HD Graphics (don't know which one). For the past few months, I have been getting random spikes in my CPU usage, causing heavy lag every 30 seconds or so. This lag is present in all applications, regardless of how heavy or intensive they are. I can't even play Solitaire or scroll down a simple HTML page in Firefox without experiencing this annoying lag. The Task Manager shows CPU usage fluctuating between 20 and 60% when I'm using Firefox and fluctuating between 20 and 80% when I'm playing a game.
I am guessing this could be an overheating issue, but I don't want to work on that assumption alone.
 
Resource monitor > CPU tab > avg cpu usage column will help you track down whats hogging the CPU. Use the checkboxes next to a process to trace it out in the cpu usage graph.

Realtemp will help you keep track of temperatures. If the Maximum temp touches or goes beyond the P6200's rated 90 deg C , you know your CPU is overheating and throttling.
 
Thanks! I followed your instructions, and found out that the temperature doesn't go above 65-70 degrees, and under the most stress, stays at 75-78 degrees. The CPU is hogged by any game/program that I'm running, but the sudden lag/stops occur when the CPU usage of that particular process drops to below 10% for a second or before going back up to 50-60%. No other process is takes up the CPU power in that duration.
 
make sure your HDD has no bad sector .. I used to get such occasional lgs and locks ups due to the bad sectors on HDD and windows 8 has a known issue of 100 % disk activity without any heavy read / write activities - so make sure you have no such isses - another thing you can try is to set the power plan to performance mode.
 
I checked for errors and bad sectors on my HDD, but nothing turned up. Nothing mentioned here so far has helped. This particular issue has been causing a lot of disruption in my work, and I can't even play the simplest of games because of this. Is there any way to accurately diagnose the root of this problem?
 
Try finding out which process is eating up by going to 'show all process'. It might be work of a virus by disguising itself as a system process. Besides some old games like NFS Carbon have an issue of eating up CPU even though the game has already been quit. If you find out which process is which is taking up your CPU usage you can get the specific solution.
 
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